L INEAR A LGEBRA

Exercise Sheet 03: Vector Spaces

Exercise 1. Show that the set P3 of polynomials a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + a3 x3 of degree three

or less is a vector space (where a0 , a1 , a2 a3 are any real numbers and x is a variable).
Show that the set P(3) of polynomials, a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + a3 x3 , a 6= 0, (i.e., of degree
exactly three) is not a vector space.
Note that in general the set of polynomials Pn of degree equal to or less than n, n N is a
vector space.
Exercise 2. For the vector space R3 decide which of the following are subspaces:
a) {(x, 0, z) : x, z R}
b) {(x, y, z) : x = 2y, x, y, z R}
c) {(x, y, z) : x = 2y + 5, x, y, z R}

Exercise 3. Show that the set C3 of all ordered 3-tuples of complex numbers, with the
ordinary algebraic operations of addition and multiplication by complex numbers, is
a vector space.
Exercise 4. Consider the three matrices in the vector space R22 given by






1 0
1 0
1 0
A=
, B=
, C=
0 0
0 1
1 1
Show that the set of linear combinations of A, B, C is a subspace of R22 .
Exercise 5. Check whether or not the vector (3, 4, 4) is in the span of the set of vectors
{(1, 2, 3), (1, 0, 2)} and, if it is, then find the linear combination.
Exercise 6. Prove that the set of vectors {(1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1), (1, 2, 3)} is linearly
dependent. Prove that the set of vectors {(0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1), (1, 2, 3)} is linearly independent.

Exercise 7. Decide whether the three polynomials p1 (x) = 1 x + x2 ; p2 (x) = 2 +

x; p3 (x) = 1 + 2x x2 are linearly dependent or independent. If they are linearly
dependent then show one linear dependence.
Exercise 8. Prove that the set B = {(1, 1, 0), (1, 2, 1), (2, 1, 0)} is a basis for R3 . Find the
coordinates of vector v = (3, 2, 1) with respect to B.
Exercise 9. Find a basis and the dimension for each of the sets below that are subspaces
of R4 :
a) {(y, 2y, y, 0) : y R}
b) {(y, 2y, y, z) : y, z R}
c) {(y, 2y, z, 1) : y, z R}
d) {(y, y + z, 3y 2z, z) : y, z R}

Exercise 10. Given vectors u = (u1 , u2 ), v = (v1 , v2 ) R2 decide whether the following operations are inner products:
a) u v = 2u1 v1 + 3u2 v2
b) u v = 2u1 v1 + 3u2 v2
c) u v = u1 v1 + u2
For each operation that is an inner product:
1) Find the length of vectors (1, 0) and (2, 1).
2) Find their inner product.
3) Find the angle between them.

Exercise 11. Consider the operation defined in the vector space of matrices of dimension 2 2 with real entries, R22 , by:

 

a11 a12
b11 b12
AB=

= a11 b11 + a12 b12 + a21 b21 + a22 b22

a21 a22
b21 b22
a) Prove that this operation is an inner product in R22 .
2


b) Prove that the matrices A =

1 3
2 4


and B =

0
3

2
3


are orthogonal.

c) Consider the right-angled triangle with sides A, B and hypotenuse H. Find H

and confirm that the three sides verify the Pythagorean theorem.
d) Find the angles between A and H and B and H. Do the angles of this triangle
add up to ?


1 3
e) Find the orthogonal projection of matrix B and C =
on matrix A.
2 4